Athleticism will always be beneficial for your swing, but no matter how good you are at another sport, it’s unlikely you can pick up golf with ease. No matter how talented you are in other sports, the transition to golf will not be easy — the game is just too difficult.
But while the transition to golf won’t be seamless, there are elements of other sports that you can draw on to improve your golf swing. Take the technique for throwing a ball, for example. According to GOLF Top 100 Teacher Brian Mogg, the positions you use to properly throw a ball can help you find the proper arm positioning at the top of your backswing.
“If you’re going to throw a ball, you want to have a little more space,” Mogg says. “I’m not going to shot put the ball and I’m not going to stiff arm it too wide. A good drill to do is to mimic like you’re throwing the ball, and then swing your hands up.”
When you draw your arm back like you’re getting ready to throw a ball, your arm is in the optimal position that you’d want to see at the top of your backswing. This position is the proper width from your body that your arm needs to be to make a powerful swing.
“If you struggle to find the proper placement for that trail arm, do that one-arm swing,” Mogg says. “Feel where it naturally goes, where you’d have space for throwing a ball. You do that, it feels good. You get good natural width on the downswing and you can go ahead and pop it.”